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Chapter 42 - Jack's Advice
🕑 Added 2025-05-06 20:52:27 +0000 UTCDip... Pull... Dip...
In a small boat, Jack was rowing toward Port Royal, heading for the docks.
Sitting in the boat with him was a black horse—Tornado.
As Jack strained with the oars, he couldn't help but glance at the horse, who stared back at him with a dumb expression, sitting oddly on his haunches.
"You're just gonna sit there?" He asked, irritated.
But Tornado only tilted his head in confusion, then lifted a front hoof and showed his horseshoe.
Jack's nose wrinkled, along with his left eye, at the sight.
Unwilling to lose this battle or carry a lazy passenger, he quickly came up with a solution.
"Not having hands doesn't mean you can't help! You've still got a mouth, don't you? Use it to bite!"
Extending the oar toward the horse's mouth, he spoke with a glint of mischief in his eyes.
Tornado stared at him strangely, but finally nodded. Then, with a very human-like shrug, he opened his mouth and bit.
"AHH!! Not me, you idiotic horse! The oar!"
…
Puss strolled calmly out of the military dock and headed toward the public harbor.
When he arrived, he witnessed a scene he had seen in his past life—though slightly different.
Jack was massaging his hand and glaring angrily at Tornado, who had an innocent look on his face. They passed directly by a few barrels when a voice called out.
"Hold up, there, you."
Jack and Tornado stopped and looked strangely toward the barrels.
"It's a shilling to tie up your boat at the dock. And I shall need to know your name."
An old man, dressed in fine beige clothes and hidden among the barrels, pulled out a ledger as he spoke.
Jack looked at him strangely.
"Why are you hiding in there?" He asked, confused.
The old man looked at them like they were idiots and raised a hand, pointing at a pirate ship out in the bay, just about to be boarded by some redcoats in a rowboat.
"Don't you see there's a pirate ship out there? I didn't have time to run, so I hid here," The old harbormaster said irritably, then continued.
"Now, name and shilling," He said, holding his quill and book.
Jack's eye twitched at the absurdity of the man.
"You—hiding, afraid of pirates—and yet still willing to work and collect fees?" He asked, incredulous.
"One thing has nothing to do with the other," The old man replied, shaking his head and staring at him again, waiting for the name and the shilling.
Jack placed his index finger on his chin, thinking.
Then he reached into his coin pouch, pulled out three shillings, and slapped them onto the book.
"What do you say, three shillings, and we forget the name?" He said, giving a persuasive smile.
The man, still half-hidden among the barrels, looked at the coins, then at Jack, and after a second, a pleasant smile appeared on his face.
"Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. Smith," The old harbormaster said, closing his book with a smile and ducking deeper into the barrels.
Jack and Tornado exchanged puzzled glances.
The same word popped into the minds of both man and horse.
'Bizarre.'
Then they saw, further ahead, a small hooded figure standing and watching them.
Tornado, spotting his owner, quickly galloped over, excited.
"Neighhh!!" He bobbed his head up and down happily, then brought his snout close to Puss.
"Good boy!" Puss gave the horse a playful pat on the nose, amused by the animal's attachment to him.
Jack also approached, and Puss removed his hand from Tornado’s snout. The horse gave him a regretful look, but Puss simply turned and began walking out of the port, with the two of them following behind.
"Funny. I thought that since he was doing his job, even with the risk of pirate attacks, he’d be an honest worker and wouldn’t accept bribes," Puss said, genuinely curious.
"One thing has nothing to do with the other," Jack replied playfully, echoing the exact words the harbormaster had just used.
Puss couldn’t help but smile at that, amused, though a question still lingered in his mind.
"Why didn't you just make up a name and pay a single shilling instead of three?" Puss couldn't help but ask, confused after witnessing the scene.
Jack looked at him with a raised eyebrow but then realized the source of the confusion.
"Well, you're probably new to this piracy life—" Jack began, but Puss interrupted him.
"I'm not a pirate," The cat said simply, with only one green eye visible beneath the black hood.
Jack raised an eyebrow at him.
"You've never committed a crime either, but that's not what the posters and people in Spain say. Sometimes you don't choose to be a pirate—people choose it for you," He said with a shrug.
Puss couldn't help but furrow his brow at those words.
Jack noticed the small figure freeze, and though he didn't show it on his face, he felt a twinge of guilt.
"Look, kid, people who don't know you aren't really interested in you. If someone tells them you're a pirate or a criminal and posts a wanted poster with your face around town, they'll just take it as truth. They won't bother wasting even a single minute of their day trying to figure out what's true and what's not," He said, sharing his hard-earned wisdom.
Puss couldn't help but look at him.
Of course, he already knew this truth, but sometimes, it just takes someone saying it to your face for it to really sink in.
Jack saw the little feline regain a bit of spirit, and a small smile crept onto his lips.
"People aren't called sheep for nothing. If they've got a shepherd to guide them, they'll calmly follow the herd without question—even if the path leads straight to the slaughterhouse." He smiled, walking casually down the dock, empty of people, all of whom were hiding from the pirates.
Leaning lazily on the hilt of his sword, he walked on in his usual Jack manner—nonchalant and unconcerned.
Puss looked at him, and this time, instead of being followed, he was the one doing the following.
Jack glanced back, and upon seeing the cat still watching him, a memory popped into his mind.
"You know, I've got this mark." He pulled back his sleeve, revealing a horse bite.
His eye twitched when he saw the confused looks from Puss and Tornado.
"Not that one, this one!" He said, annoyed, pointing lower at a brand shaped like a 'P'.
"This mark was made to doom me to a life of piracy, no way back, all to pay for the 'crime' I committed. But do you know what my crime was?" Jack smiled faintly, the corner of his lips curling.
Puss already knew, but still looked at him curiously.
"I freed and hid slaves who had hired me to transport them. Well, the man who gave the job—a certain officer from the East India Trading Company—didn't take kindly to that." He opened his arms, walking backward as he spoke, and continued, "That's our reality, my feline companion. Sometimes, this world needs fewer people who look right, and a few more bad guys like us."
With that, he grinned fearlessly.
"In the end, it doesn't matter what they say or think about you. What matters is what you think of yourself. Don't disappoint yourself, and everything will turn out fine—even if everything goes wrong." Jack smiled as he said the phrase that, though he didn't know it, Puss would carry for the rest of his life.
'Don't disappoint yourself, and everything will turn out fine—even if everything goes wrong… The phrase sounds a bit absurd, but still, very good.'
Puss's eyes gleamed slightly, the words settling deep in his heart, and a smile crept onto his lips.
He looked at the pirate, who had stopped and was now facing him.
"Jack... Thank you," Puss said softly, but sincerely.
"Don't mention it. That advice was worth a gold coin." Jack smiled and rested his wrist once more on the hilt of his sword.
"Of course, I'm giving you the clothes, sword, and trinkets you borrowed from me after the bet as payment," Puss said with a smirk, resting his own wrist on his sword's hilt as well, before continuing to walk.
"Ah!" Jack raised a finger to stop him, but then thought better of it. He touched the tip of the raised finger to his lower lip, his eyes shifting from side to side, calculating. In the end, he found it fair, shrugged, and resumed following the cat and horse who had gone ahead.
